Low jitter large frequency tuning lc pll for multi-speed clocking applications

ABSTRACT

ABSTRACT The subject innovation relates to systems and/or methodologies for generating a low jitter large frequency tuning LC-based phase-locked loop circuit for multi-speed clocking applications. In addition to a plurality of noise reduction features, the phase-locked loop includes programmable charge pump and loop filter that enable a wide loop bandwidth, a programmable VCO that enables a wide VCO frequency range and a per lane clock divider that further enables a wide PLL frequency range. Furthermore, an auto-calibration circuit ensures that the VCO included in the PLL receives the optimum current for noise reduction across the VCO frequency range.

CLAIM OF PRIORITY UNDER 35 U.S.C. §119

The present Application for Patent claims priority to ProvisionalApplication No. 61/192,847 entitled “A low jitter large frequency tuningLC PLL in CMOS for multi-GHz clocking applications” filed Sep. 22, 2008,and assigned to the assignee hereof and hereby expressly incorporated byreference herein.

BACKGROUND

1. Field

The present innovation relates generally to an LC phase-locked loop(PLL), and more specifically to improving the LC PLL's jitterperformance, loop bandwidth, voltage control oscillator (VCO) frequencyrange and the PLL frequency range for multi-speed clocking applications.

2. Background

A phase-locked loop is a well known circuit that is typically used as acontrol system to generate a signal having a fixed relation to the phaseof a reference signal. With reference to FIG. 1, a typical phase-lockedloop is shown. The phase-locked loop 100 includes a phase detector 102,a voltage controlled oscillator (VCO) 104, and a feedback 106 path fromthe VCO 104 to the phase detector 102. The phase detector 102 receivesas inputs a reference signal and a feedback signal from the VCO 104. Thephase detector output controls the VCO 104 such that the phasedifference between the two inputs is held constant. The VCO 104generates an output frequency based on the output of the phase detector.Voltage controlled oscillators 104 are an integral part of high speedserial interfaces, and the performance of the VCO 104 to a large extentcan determine the performance of the PLL 100 as a whole.

With the ever increasing data rates and density of high speed serialinterfaces in transmission systems, current Serializer-Deserializer(SerDes) transceivers need to be multi-data rate compatible to supportnew link speeds and standards while still being compatible with previousspeeds and standards. Achieving the desirable higher data rates witholder lossy and discontinuous channels places a large burden on silicon,particularly in equalization and clocking. As a consequence, it isdesirable to have a low jitter phase-locked loop (PLL) that provides atolerance in the transmit path jitter budget and also facilitatesreliable data recovery by the clock and data recovery (CDR) delay-lockedloop (DLL) and phase interpolator (PI) in the receiver.

Typically, when circuit designers attempt to satisfy the requirements ofmultiple standards with one PLL design, they use a ring-oscillator PLL.The inherent properties of ring-oscillator PLLs give them wide-bandwidthcapabilities. However, ring-oscillator PLLs also traditionally sufferfrom poor jitter performance. Compared to the ring-oscillator PLLs, LCPLLs generally have superior jitter performance but a smaller VCOfrequency range. It would be desirable to have a PLL solution with thejitter performance of a LC PLL and the wide-band performance of aring-oscillator PLL.

SUMMARY

The following presents a simplified summary of one or more aspects ofthe present invention in order to provide a basic understanding of thepresent invention. This summary is not an extensive overview of allcontemplated aspects, and is not intended to identify all the key orcritical elements of all aspects of the present invention or todelineate the scope of any or all aspects of the present invention. Itssole purpose is to present some concepts of one or more aspects of thepresent invention in a simplified form as a prelude to the more detaileddescription that is presented later.

[Inserted Upon Claim Approval]

To accomplish the foregoing and related ends, the one or more aspects ofthe present invention comprise the features hereinafter fully describedand particularly pointed out in the claims. The following descriptionand the annexed drawings set forth in detail certain illustrativefeatures of the one or more aspects of the present invention. Thesefeatures are indicative, however, of but a few of the various ways inwhich the principles of present invention may be employed, and thisdescription is intended to include all the aspects of the presentinvention and their equivalents.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 illustrates a general component block diagram of a phase-lockedloop;

FIG. 2 is a general component block diagram of a low-jitter largefrequency tuning LC phase-locked loop circuit in accordance with anaspect of the subject specification;

FIG. 3 is an example top level circuit diagram illustrating adifferential LC tank in accordance with an aspect of the subjectspecification;

FIG. 4 illustrates an example layout of the phase-locked loop inaccordance with an aspect of the subject specification;

FIG. 5 illustrates an example circuit diagram of a programmable chargepump architecture in accordance with an aspect of the subjectspecification;

FIG. 6 is an example circuit diagram illustrating the architecture ofindividual charge pumps in accordance with an aspect of the subjectspecification;

FIG. 7 illustrates an example design of a passive loop filter inaccordance with an aspect of the subject specification;

FIG. 8 illustrates an example detailed circuit diagram of a programmableVCO architecture in accordance with an aspect of the subject innovation;

FIG. 9 illustrates an example coarse calibration circuit unit cell inaccordance with an aspect of the subject specification;

FIG. 10 illustrates an example circuit diagram of an auto-calibrationcircuit in accordance with an aspect of the subject specification;

FIG. 11 illustrates an example circuit diagram of a calibration selectcircuit in accordance with an aspect of the subject specification;

FIG. 12 illustrates an example top level diagram of a feedback clockdivider in accordance with an aspect of the subject specification;

FIG. 13 illustrates an example top level diagram of a per lane clockdivider in accordance with an aspect of the subject specification;

FIG. 14 is an example graphical representation of the VCO frequency vs.calibration code measurements in accordance with an aspect of thesubject specification;

FIG. 15 is an example graphical representation of the measured closedloop frequency spectrum of the phase-locked loop in accordance with thesubject specification;

FIG. 16 is an example graphical representation of a set of jittermeasurements of the phase-locked loop in accordance with an aspect ofthe subject specification;

FIG. 17 is an example graphical representation of a jitter plot inaccordance with an aspect of the subject specification;

FIG. 18 is an example graphical representation of a plot of thetransmission eye in accordance with an aspect of the subjectspecification;

FIG. 19 is an example graphical representation of a plot of thetransmission jitter in accordance with an aspect of the subjectspecification; and

FIG. 20 illustrates a silicon die micrograph for a LC PLL embedded in a4-lane macro.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

The innovation is now described with reference to the drawings, whereinlike reference numerals are used to refer to like elements throughout.In the following description, for purposes of explanation, numerousspecific details are set forth in order to provide a thoroughunderstanding of the subject innovation. It may be evident, however,that the innovation can be practiced without these specific details. Inother instances, well-known structures and devices are shown in blockdiagram form in order to facilitate describing the innovation.

FIG. 2 is an example functional block diagram of a low-jitter largefrequency tuning LC phase-locked loop circuit that can be used formulti-speed clocking applications in accordance with an aspect of thepresent innovation. The phase-locked loop (PLL) 200 provides an outputfrequency that can be used for a plurality of applications. The PLL canbe used to generate stable frequencies, recover a signal from a noisycommunication channel, or distribute clock timing pulses in digitallogic circuits. A voltage controlled oscillator (VCO) 202 is central tothe design of a PLL 200, because the VCO 202, to a large extent,determines the performance of the PLL 200 (discussed below). An approachof the present invention is to use a traditional second order passiveloop filter 214 and a charge pump 208 combined with sufficient digitalcontrol circuitry to make the PLL 200 programmable and adaptable tosatisfy a plurality of loop bandwidth (LBW) and peaking requirements.

Beginning on the left side of FIG. 2, a reference clock receiver (e.g.,Refclk Rx) 204 obtains, acquires, or otherwise receives a referenceclock signal. The reference clock receiver 204 can be, for example, a1.8V low-voltage differential signaling (LVDS) reference clock receiverhaving a maximum operating frequency of 5.2 GHz. The reference clocksignal can have a frequency of, for example, 156.25 MHz. The referenceclock receiver supplies an input signal to a phase frequency detector(PFD) 206 based on the frequency of the reference clock input. Inaddition, the PFD 206 receives a feedback signal (e.g., FB_CLK) from theLC VCO 202. The PFD 206 compares the frequencies of the input signal andthe feedback signal, and produces an error signal proportional to thedifference of the two signals.

The error signal is provided to a programmable charge pump 208. Thecharge pump 208 is an electronic circuit that uses capacitors as energystorage elements to create an adjustable voltage power source. Thecharge pump 208 is programmable because it can contain a plurality ofindividual charge pumps, and the number of charge pumps that are activeat a given time can be determined, selected, or otherwise programmed.For example, the charge pump 208 can contain four individual chargepumps, wherein a designer can activate a desired number of the chargepumps (e.g., one to four) via an external PLL loop bandwidth controller212, which can be implemented in hardware, software or firmware. Thecontroller 212 can be implemented as a portion of the calibrationcontrol block 210 module or can be a separate module.

The charge pump 208 supplies an output voltage signal to a loop filter214. The loop filter 214 removes unwanted high frequency components fromthe voltage signal that are not removed by the phase frequency detector206 so that they are not transmitted to the VCO input line (i.e. tuneline). Loop filters are generally constructed by using operationalamplifiers (op-amps). A disadvantage of the op-amps is that they caninject additional noise into the PLL 200. In the preferred embodiment ofpresent invention, the loop filter 214 is constructed of passiveelements to reduce the overall noise.

As illustrated in FIG. 2, there is a feedback loop between the chargepump 208 and the loop filter 214. This feedback loop functions to reducethe deterministic jitter (DJ) and thus further decreases the overallnoise in the PLL 200. The loop filter 214 is programmable via a set ofresistors, R, and a set of capacitors, C2, wherein the designer canselect the number of active resistors R and capacitors C2 via thecontroller 212 (see FIG. 7). The programmability of the charge pump 208and RC loop filter 214 enables tweaking of the PLL's 200 bandwidthproperties. By programming the charge pump 208 and loop filter 214independently, the designer can program the PLL 200 bandwidth. Forexample, the programmability incorporated in the charge pump 208 andloop filter 214 allows the PLL 200 to achieve a loop bandwidth (LBW)operating range of 1.6 to 9 MHz across the LC VCO 202 frequency range.Loop bandwidth (LBW) is an important performance parameter of a PLLcircuit. Generally, a higher LBW is preferable to a lower LBW becausethe higher LBW enables the PLL to better track the reference frequency.However, conventional PLLs with high LBW cannot reliably block thejitter caused by the reference frequency, which is undesirable. Thepresent invention provides a PLL with a high LBW and a superior jitterperformance.

The loop filter 214 outputs a control voltage VCTL signal, which servesas the input voltage for the LC VCO 202. The LC VCO 202 produces anoutput signal (CLKP or CLKN) having a frequency based on the controlvoltage signal VCTL obtained from loop filter 214. The output signal isalso supplied to the feedback loop having a feedback divider 216. Thefeedback divider 216 can divide the frequency of the feedback signalreceived from the LC VCO 202 by N and provide the signal having the newfrequency (FB_CLK) to the PFD block 208, where N can be an integerranging from, for example, two (2) to sixty four (64) in increments ofone (1). The purpose of the division is to enable the PFD 206 to comparethe FB_CLK signal with the reference frequency signal provided by thereference frequency clock receiver 204. For example, if signal providedby the reference frequency clock receiver has a frequency of 156.25 MHzand the signal output by the LC VCO 202 has a frequency of 5 GHz, thefeedback driver 216 can divide frequency of the LC VCO 202 output signalby 32 and provide the new signal having a frequency of 156.25 MHz(FB_CLK) to the PFD 206. The calibration control block 210 can beprogrammed to determine the value of N and provide that value N to thefeedback divider 216 by way of the DIVIDE/SELECT channel.

The LC VCO 202 receives 1.8V from an external power supply. Typically,power supplies can be a significant source of noise in electroniccircuits, which can be particularly disruptive to the performance of theLC VCO 202. A VCO regulator 218 is provided to mitigate the effects ofsupply noise from the 1.8V supply. In the preferred embodiment of thepresent invention, the PLL 200 has a VCO frequency range of 2.343 GHz to5 GHz using a 156.25 MHz reference clock.

The PLL 200 can also include a programmable clock divider 220 at thetransmission (Tx) input of each lane (e.g., TX_CLKP, TX_CLKN), whereinthe clock divider 220 can divide the frequency by an integer M, where Mincludes 1, 2, 4, or 8 (discussed below). The clock divider 220 enablesthe designer to further extend the PLL frequency range from 292.875 MHz(2.343 GHz÷8) to 5 GHz. The value of the integer M can be selected bythe calibration control block 210 and provided to the clock divider 220by way of the PER LANE DIVIDE SELECT channel. One of ordinary skill inthe art can appreciate that the clock dividers 220 for the various lanescan use different values of the integer M such that each lane cantransmit a clock signal having a difference frequency from the otherlanes.

Turning now to FIG. 3, an example top level circuit diagram illustratinga differential LC tank circuit in accordance with an aspect of thesubject innovation is shown. A regulator 218 (e.g., regulated supply) isused to isolate supply noise from leaking into the VCO 202. Aprogrammable VCO bias current source 304 is shown, wherein the VCO bias304 can be controlled via the calibration control block 210 shown inFIG. 2. A PMOS cascade current source can be selected as the currentsource 304 for the VCO 202 because it has lower inverse frequency (1/f)noise than a NMOS source for a given bias current, and thereforeimproves noise rejection.

The VCO bias 304 is shown coupled to the LC tank (e.g., LC VCO) 202. TheLC tank 202 is designed to have a relatively low average sensitivity(KVCO) of approximately 600 MHz/V to minimize the deterministic jitterand varactor amplitude modulation to phase modulation (AM-to-PM)conversion caused due to the low frequency bias noise. The LC tank 202uses 1.8V NMOS in Nwell accumulation-mode varactors (e.g., FT1 and FT2)and high-Q spiral inductors.(e.g., L1 and L2). The Vctl (e.g., finetuning) obtained from the loop filter discussed below with respect toFIG. 6 controls the varactors FT1 and FT2. In order to improve substratenoise rejection double guard rings are used on the varactors FT1 and FT2and NMOS switching transistors (e.g., N1 and N2) are used as switches.

The LC tank 202 further includes a first coarse tuning calibrationcircuit 306 and a second coarse tuning calibration circuit 308. Thecoarse tuning calibration circuits 306 and 308 include a first coarsetuning cap select 310 and a second coarse tuning cap select 312,respectively. The coarse tuning cap select can activate one or more of32 capacitors (e.g., CC<0:31>) on either side of the differential pairby opening or closing the coarse tuning transistors 314.

As discussed previously, the coarse tuning cap select can be controlledby the calibration logic (e.g., calibration control block 210). As thecalibration logic alters the number of active capacitors, it alsoadjusts the current via the VCO bias 304. For example, the current canbe adjusted within the range of 3 mA to 10 mA. The control logic ispreprogrammed to adjust the VCO bias 304 for low noise at each desiredfrequency.

In view of the example systems described supra, the disclosed subjectmatter will be better appreciated with reference to FIGS. 4-13illustrating an embodiment of the innovation as actually fabricated bythe inventors thereof. The figures illustrate various parts andcomponents of the previously disclosed system in detail, however it isto be appreciated that this is but one embodiment, and those skilled inthe art may be able to readily identify equivalent embodiments withinthe scope and spirit of the current specification. Furthermore, theinnovation described herein can additionally, or alternatively, beconstructed using hardware, software, field programmable gate arrays(FPGA), and so forth.

In an embodiment of invention fabricated by the inventors, using a156.25 MHz clock, the PLL lock was verified at 2.343 GHz, 2.5 GHz, . . ., 4.843 GHz and 5 GHz (i.e. st f_(vco)=156.25 MHz*X, where X=15, 16, . .. , 31, 32). The rms random jitter (RJ_(rms)) of the PLL was measured tobe 460 fs at 5 GHz (10 Gb/s), 548 fs at 3.125 GHz and less than 750 fsacross the entire VCO frequency range while the total power consumedfrom the 1.8V and 1.0V power supply was of the order of 32 mW. Moreover,using the figure of merit (FOM):{(f_(vco,max)−f_(vco,min))/f_(vco,avg)}*100}, the LC VCO was found tohave a coarse tuning range of 66% and a worst-case hold range (finetuning range at minimum VCO frequency) of 9.6%. These findings areillustrated by Table 1 below:

Table of Measured Performance Technology 65 nm CMOS 10-metalcopper/low-κ Supply Voltage 1.0 V (core), 1.8 V (I/O) Input ReferenceClock 156.25 MHz VCO Frequency Range Coarse Calibration Range 2.3 to 4.6GHz, or 66% Fine tuning Range 9.6% (minimum), 17.3% (maximum) PhaseNoise at 1 MHz offset Closed Loop Phase Noise: −117.18 dBc/Hz 3.125 GHzClosed Loop Phase Noise: −109.31 dBc/Hz 5 GHz Output Jitter RJ_(rms):3.125 GHz 548 fs RJ_(rms): 5 GHz 460 fs Loop Bandwidth ProgrammableRange 1.6 to 9 MHz Peaking 1.6 dB maximum Feedback Divider 2 to 64 inincrements of 1 Silicon Area 0.35 mm² (500 um × 700 um) Power 32 mW at 5GHz (1.0 V, 1.8 V, 25° C.)

FIG. 4 illustrates a silicon layout 400 of an actual embodiment of thephase-locked loop 200 in accordance with an aspect of the subjectinnovation. Detailed circuit diagrams for the various components of thePLL 200 shown in FIG. 4, including the programmable charge pumps 208,passive loop filter 214, programmable VCO architecture 202, feedbackdivider 216, per lane clock divider 220, and their sub components areprovided below. One of ordinary skill will appreciate that the clockdivider 220 illustrated in FIG. 4 can be implemented either on or offthe silicon 400. One of ordinary skill in the art will also appreciatethat the PLL 200 can include multiple clock dividers 220. FIG. 20illustrates a silicon die micrograph 2000 for a LC PLL embedded in a4-lane (lane 0-3) Serializer/Deserializer (SerDes) macro.

FIG. 5 illustrates an example circuit diagram of a programmable chargepump 208 architecture in accordance with an aspect of the subjectinnovation. The charge pump 208 includes a first charge pump 502, asecond charge pump 504, a third charge pump 506, and a fourth chargepump 508. The charge pumps 502-508 can be activated via a charge pumpselect 510 (e.g., cp_select<1:0>). The charge pump select 510 includes afirst select line 512 (e.g., sell), and second select line 514 (e.g.,sel2). By setting the select lines 512 and/or 514 to a binary zero (0)or one (1) a designer can activate one or more of the charge pumps502-508. For example, setting the first select line 512 to zero (0) andthe second select line 514 to zero (0) can activate the first chargepump 502.

FIG. 6 illustrates an example circuit diagram illustrating thearchitecture of an individual charge pump (CP) coupled to the loopfilter (LF) 214 in accordance with an aspect of the present innovation.For example, the charge pump 600 can be illustrative of the architecturefor any of the charge pumps 502-508 (see FIG. 5). The CP current Ocp isprogrammable and nominally ranges from 0.25 to 1 mA. The programmableresistance R and ripple capacitance C2 in the LF 214 along with Ocpprovide control over loop bandwidth (LBW) and peaking. As shown in FIG.6, Vcap (voltage across capacitor C1) in the LF is fed back to the drainnodes M1, M3 in the CP through a unity gain buffer. This maintains thevoltage across CP current sources to be relatively constant during thephase detector (PD) switching. The feedback path from the loop filter tothe charge pump (e.g., Vcap_cp) facilitates reduction of deterministicjitter. The CP, LF output (Vctl) feeds into the VCO 202 as shown in FIG.3.

FIG. 7 illustrates an example design of a passive loop filter inaccordance with an aspect of the present innovation. The loop filter 214includes an R select 702 and a C2 select 704 that provide theprogrammability in the loop filter resistors 706 and 708, and ripplecapacitors 710 and 712, respectively. The designer can activate one orboth of the filter resistors 706 and 708 via the R select 702. Forinstance, if R select 702 is set to binary zero (0) then the filterresistor 706 is activate, and if R select 702 is set to a binary one (1)then both filter resistors 706 and 708 are active. Therefore, theresistance in the loop filter 214 can be R or can be two times R.Similarly, the designer can active one or both of the ripple capacitors710 and 712 via the C2 select 704. Therefore, the capacitance in theloop filter 214 can be C2 or twice C2. The programmability incorporatedin the charge pump 208, 600 (discussed previously) and the loop filter214 enable the loop filter to achieve a LBW range of 1.6 to 9 MHz.

Turning now to FIG. 8, an example detailed circuit diagram illustratingprogrammable VCO bias current circuit 304 architecture in accordancewith an embodiment of the subject innovation is shown. The digitalcalibration circuit 210 (discussed supra) selects the VCO bias currentfor every calibration code so as to maximize output amplitude withoutpushing the LC tank 214 into the voltage-limited region. This schemeoptimizes the VCO 202 phase noise across its frequency range and is madeprogrammable to compensate for future process shifts.

FIG. 9 illustrates an example coarse calibration circuit unit cell 900in accordance with an aspect of the subject innovation. Each coarsecalibration block includes 32 digitally switchable 1.0V NMOS in Nwellaccumulation-mode MOS capacitors with NMOS switches controlled by thedigital auto-calibration circuit (see FIG. 10). On start-up, all of thecoarse calibration capacitors can be selected. The coarse calibrationcircuit provides the wide coarse tuning range of 2.3 to 4.6 GHz, afterwhich, fine tuning occurs.

Illustrated in FIG. 10 is an example circuit diagram showing anauto-calibration circuit in accordance with an aspect of the subjectinnovation. The auto-calibration circuit 1000 includes two counters, onethat is clocked by the reference clock 1002 (e.g., reflck counter) andthe other by the feedback clock 1004 (e.g., feedback clock counter). Themaximum count value on these counters is programmable to 2⁸, 2¹⁰, 2¹²,or 2¹⁴. If the reference clock counter 1002 reaches the maximum countbefore the feedback clock counter 1004, the calibration select circuit1006 de-selects a coarse calibration capacitor from the LC tank and thecounter process is restarted. This process repeats until the feedbackclock counter 1004 reaches its maximum count before the reference clockcounter 1002. Subsequently, fine tuning occurs. It is to be appreciatedFIG. 10 illustrates but a single example, and the auto-calibrationcircuit could alternatively be implemented in hardware, software, FPGA,and so forth.

Referring to FIG. 11, an example circuit diagram illustrating acalibration select circuit 1100 is shown in accordance with an aspect ofthe current innovation. The calibration select circuit 1100 consists ofshift registers and control logic that is clocked by the referenceclock.

FIG. 12 illustrates an example top level diagram of a feedback divider216 in accordance with an aspect of the current innovation. The feedbackdivider 216 is comprised of completely static CMOS using toggle flops,and designed for low power/high speed operation. In addition, thefeedback divider 216 is programmable, and can divide a feedback signal(e.g., VCO output) by N, wherein N is an integer between two (2) andsixty four (64) inclusive.

FIG. 13 illustrates an example top level diagram of a per lane clockdivider 220 in accordance with an aspect of the current innovation. Theper lane clock divider 220 is a programmable clock divider that can beimplemented at the transmission (e.g., Tx) input of each lane to dividethe frequency of the output signal of the LC VCO 202 by an Integer M,wherein M can be one (1), two (2), four (4), or eight (8). As discussedpreviously, the per lane clock divider 220 is controlled by thecalibration control block 210. In the preferred embodiment, the clockdivider 220 can be programmed to provide a lane with a data transferrate between 0.586 Gb/s to 10 Gb/s. Specifically, a programmable PLLoutput clock divide of 8 with PLL locked at 2.343 GHz enables 0.586Gb/s; output clock divide of I with PLL locked at 5 GHz enables 10 Gb/s.The data transfer rate for each lane can be set independently of thedata rates of the other lanes or in relation to the data rates of theother lanes.

Actual Test Results

The following FIGS. 14-19 are illustrative of test conducted by theinventors for the innovation described in the preceding figures (e.g.,FIGS. 2-13). The test results demonstrate that the innovation operatesas asserted herein, and that the innovation has actually been reduced topractice. It is to be appreciated, that these test results are for butone example embodiment, and a plurality of other possible tests andresults are possible within the scope and spirit of the subjectinnovation.

FIG. 14 illustrates a plot 1400 of the open loop VCO output frequencymeasurement in Ghz (Y-axis) versus the calibration code measurements(X-axis) (i.e. number of capacitors selected) for silicon (fvco_Si) andsimulation tuned for inline device characteristics and parasiticextraction (fvco_Sim). As can been seen, the silicon measurementsclosely track the simulation measurements.

FIG. 15 shows a spectrum analyzer screenshot 1500 illustrating theclosed loop frequency spectrum of the PLL locked at 5 GHz (10 Gb/s) witha clock pattern coming out on the TX. Reference spurs are observed atΔf=±156 MHz with a relative power of −50.81 dB with regard to thecarrier. With the PLL locked at 5 GHz, closed loop phase noise at 1 MHzoffset is measured to be −109.31 dBc/Hz. The test was conducted using anAgilent® E4440A 3 Hz-26.5 GHz PSA Series Spectrum Analyzer.

FIG. 16 shows a screenshot 1600 illustrating jitter measurements of aPLL disclosed in accordance with the current innovation. The PLL isshown operating at 5 GHz (10 Gb/s) and 3.125 GHz (6.25 Gb/s), with aclock pattern generated from the transmission line (Tx). The RJ_(rms)equals 460 fs at 5 GHz, and 548 fs at 3.125 GHz. The clock and datarecovery (CDR) is disabled and an external reference clock (e.g., 156.25MHz) is used as a trigger through the precision time base (PTB) input.The results were obtained via an Agilent® 86100C DCA-J samplingoscilloscope with an Agilent® 86108A precision waveform analyzer module.

FIG. 17 is a jitter transfer plot 1700 of a phase-locked loop at 3.125GHz in accordance with an aspect of the current innovation. As shown onthe plot, the PLL loop bandwidth (LBW) at maximum setting was measuredto be 9.74 MHz with 0.81 dB of peaking. The test were performed using anAgilent 86100C DCA-J sampling oscilloscope with 86108A precisionwaveform analyzer module, and an Agilent® 86100CU-400 PLL and jitterspectrum measurement application.

FIG. 18 is a screenshot 1800 illustrating a transmission (Tx) eye at 10Gb/s with a PRBS11 pattern. PBRS11 refers to Pseudo Random BinarySequence with a length of 2047 bits. The clock and data recovery (CDR)loop bandwidth (LBW) is set to 6 MHz (rate/1667) and precision time base(PTB) is enabled. The horizontal axis represents time and the verticalaxis represents the Tx signal voltage. The Tx eye consists of a maximumTx signal voltage of 262 mv and has a duration of 74.71 ps. Thescreenshot was captured from an Agilent® 86100C DCA-J samplingoscilloscope with an Agilent® 86108A precision waveform analyzer module.

FIG. 19 is a screenshot 1900 illustrating transmission (Tx) jitter at 10Gb/s with a PRBS11 pattern. The clock and delay and recovery (CDR) loopbandwidth (LBW) was set to 6 MHz (rate/1667), and the precision timebase (PTB) was enabled. The RJ_(rms) was measure to be 516 fs at 10Gb/s. The results were obtained using an Agilent® 86100C DCA-J samplingoscilloscope with an Agilent® 86108A precision waveform analyzer module.

While the foregoing disclosure discusses illustrative aspects and/orembodiments, it should be noted that various changes and modificationscould be made herein without departing from the scope of the describedaspects and/or embodiments as defined by the appended claims.Furthermore, although elements of the described aspects and/orembodiments may be described or claimed in the singular, the plural iscontemplated unless limitation to the singular is explicitly stated.Additionally, all or a portion of any aspect and/or embodiment may beutilized with all or a portion of any other aspect and/or embodiment,unless stated otherwise.

1. A LC-based phase-locked loop circuit, comprising: a phase frequencydetector for receiving an input signal and a feedback signal andgenerating an error signal that is proportional to the phase differenceof the input signal and the feedback signal; a programmable charge pumpfor modifying the error signal, wherein modifying the error signalincludes at least one of increasing or decreasing the voltage level ofthe signal; a programmable loop filter for receiving the modified errorsignal and removing high frequency components above a predeterminedthreshold from the error signal, and generating a voltage control signalbased on the modified error signal; and a voltage controlled oscillatorhaving a programmable bias control for generating a signal having afrequency based on the voltage control signal.
 2. The circuit of claim1, wherein at least one of: a set of charge pumps in the programmablecharge pump, a set of loop filter resistors in the programmable loopfilter, or a set of ripple capacitors in the programmable loop filter isprogrammed via an external controller.
 3. The circuit of claim 1,wherein the programmable charge pump includes at least four chargepumps.
 4. The circuit of claim 1, wherein the programmable loop filterincludes at least two loop filter resistors and at least two ripplecapacitors.
 5. The circuit of claim 1, wherein the signal generated bythe voltage control oscillator has a frequency that is N time higherthan the frequency of the input signal, wherein N is an integer.
 6. Thecircuit of claim 5, further comprising a feedback divider coupled to thevoltage control oscillator for dividing the frequency of the voltagecontrolled oscillator by an integer N, and transmitting the signal withthe reduced frequency to the phase frequency detector as a feedbacksignal.
 7. The circuit of claim 5, wherein the integer N can include aninteger from two to sixty four.
 8. The circuit of claim 1, furthercomprising a programmable clock divider that obtains the outputfrequency value from the voltage controlled oscillator and divides theoutput frequency value by an integer M to extend the frequency range ofthe phase-locked loop.
 9. The circuit of claim 9, wherein the integer Mis at least one of one, two, four, or eight.
 10. The circuit of claim 9,wherein the integer M is determined via an external controller.
 11. Thecircuit of claim 1, further comprising a voltage controlled oscillatorregulator that minimizes supply noise to the voltage controlledoscillator.
 12. The circuit of claim 1, further comprising: anauto-calibration component that clocks a reference clock counter with areference clock signal obtained from a reference clock receiver, andclocks a feedback counter with the feedback signal obtained from thevoltage controlled oscillator, initially activates all of a set ofcoarse calibration capacitors in the circuit, and de-selects one of thecoarse calibration capacitors in the set and restarts the countingprocess if the reference counter reaches a first maximum count valueprior to the feedback counter reaching a second maximum count value. 13.The method of claim 12, wherein at least one of the first maximumcounter value or second maximum counter value is programmable to 2⁸,2¹⁰, 2¹², or 2¹⁴.
 14. The circuit of claim 1, wherein the outputfrequency range of the voltage controlled oscillator is 2.343 Gigahertzto 5 Gigahertz.
 15. The circuit of claim 1, wherein a coarse tuningrange is approximately 66 percent.
 16. The circuit of claim 1, wherein aworst-case hold range is approximately 9.6%.
 17. A method ofauto-calibration for a LC-based phase-locked loop, comprising:implementing a first and second counter; clocking the first counter witha reference clock signal obtained from a reference clock receiver;clocking the second counter with a feedback signal obtained from avoltage controlled oscillator; activating all of a set of coarsecalibration capacitors in a LC tank circuit at initialization; andde-selecting one of the coarse calibration capacitors in the set andrestarting the counting process if the first counter reaches a firstmaximum count value prior to the second counter reaching a secondmaximum count value.
 18. The method of claim 17, further comprising:stopping the counting process and implementing fine tuning when thesecond counter reaches the second maximum count value prior to the firstcounter reaching the first maximum count value.
 19. The method of claim17, wherein at least one of the first maximum count value or secondmaximum count value is programmable to 2⁸, 2¹⁰, 2¹², or 2¹⁴.
 20. Themethod of claim 17, further comprising: progressively decreasing thecurrent in the voltage controlled oscillator as the coarse calibrationcapacitors are de-selected.
 21. The method of claim 17, furthercomprising: programming at least one of a set of charge pumps in acharge pump component, a set of loop filter resistors in a loop filter,or a set of ripple capacitors in a loop filter to achieve a desired loopband-width.
 22. A LC-based phase-locked loop circuit, comprising: aphase frequency detector that obtains an input signal and a feedbacksignal, and generates an error signal that is proportional to the phasedifference of the input signal and the feedback signal; a charge pumpcomponent that increases the voltage of the error signal, wherein thecharge pump component includes four charge pumps, and the charge pumpcomponent is programmed by activating one or more of the charge pumps; aloop filter that obtains the modified error signal, and removes highfrequency components above a predetermined threshold from the errorsignal and generates a voltage control signal based on the modifiederror signal, wherein the loop filter includes two loop filter resistorsand two ripple capacitors, and the loop filter is programmed viaactivating one or more of at least one of the loop filter resistors orripple capacitors; and a voltage controlled oscillator that generates anoutput frequency based at least in part on the voltage signal, andincludes a programmable bias control to facilitate noise reduction. 23.The circuit of claim 22, further comprising: a calibration control blockthat determines at least one of a voltage controlled oscillator bias ora divide select for a feedback divider, wherein the feedback dividerobtains the output signal from the voltage controlled oscillator,divides the frequency of the output signal by an integer N, andtransmits the divided frequency signal to the phase frequency detectoras the feedback signal.
 24. The circuit of claim 22, further comprisinga programmable clock divider that obtains the output signal from thevoltage controlled oscillator, and divides the output signal's frequencyby an integer M to extend the frequency range of the phase-locked loop,wherein the integer M is at least one of one, two, four, or eight. 25.The circuit of claim 22, further comprising: an auto-calibrationcomponent that clocks a reference clock counter with a reference clocksignal obtained from a reference clock receiver, and clocks a feedbackcounter with the feedback signal obtained from the voltage controlledoscillator, initially activates all of a set of coarse calibrationcapacitors in the circuit, and de-selects one of the coarse calibrationcapacitors in the set and restarts the counting process if the referencecounter reaches a first maximum count value prior to the feedbackcounter reaching a second maximum value, wherein at least one of thefirst maximum counter value or second maximum counter value isprogrammable to 2⁸, 2¹⁰, 2¹², or 2¹⁴.